A Message from Grace Lapsys - Owner & Master ChocolatierAll I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt! – Lucy Van Pelt, Peanuts

I’m convinced that women and chocolates are soul mates. One cannot live without the other. I’m naturally drawn to chocolates’ sensual characteristics – the look, aroma, feel and flavor. In my native home country, the Philippines, eating “tsokolate” was a way of life. Being a colony of Spain for 400 years, Criollo chocolates were brought to the Philippines in the 16th century via Mexico. Manila and Acapulco’s galleon trade paved the way for this exchange. Chocolates were handpicked, fermented, roasted and crafted to be used in both savory and sweet recipes. Among my well-cherished childhood memories of chocolate was my mother’s use of “tablea” or dark chocolate disks in tsampurado* (Spanish: champurrado), a traditional Filipino breakfast made with chocolate and sticky rice. As a kid, I thought of it as the true breakfast of champions.

Life had its many twists and turns before I got back to knowing my first love. I had worked in organic retail sales for a product line in Sasso France. My sales career jumped into high tech sales, working in the I.T. industry in the Philippines. Upon immigrating in the U.S., I worked within New Mexico’s local film industry as an art department coordinator and local indie producer. But I thought something was profoundly missing in my career.

A trip to Europe with my husband reignited my childhood passion for chocolate. While in the countryside of Rouen, Normandy in France – I was delighted to see that each little town in the countryside had their own baker, cheese maker, butcher, wine maker….and chocolatier! What fun, I thought. The fresh produce available in their small grocery stores and restaurants came from the nearby farm, as with all the cheese and wine – everything was locally produced and artisan. The way of life in the French countryside opened my eyes to joie de vivre, the true art and joy of living. Food needs to be fresh, in season, consumed and savored surrounded by nature’s beauty and the people you love. When I returned, I took a professional course in chocolate in British Columbia’s premier school of chocolate, Ecole Chocolat. I went to Vancouver, Canada and interned at CocoaNymph, one of the city's top destination for chocolates at the time. I went back to France and successfully completed Ecole’s master’s training in L’ecole du Grand Valrhona in Tain L’Hermitage, in the Rhone Valley.

My chocolate adventure has taken me to the top destinations for chocolate: Brussels, Paris, London and recently, Zurich. Drawing inspiration from my European sojourn, I’ve decided to open Joliesse Chocolates in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, which has been home for 13 years now. Using New Mexico’s unique local ingredients, European training and knowledge of tropical flavors, my hope is to bring you a truly unique and exquisite chocolate experience.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

I come from a food family. My mother's father was one of the first produce brokers in California, sourcing asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, tomatoes - every fresh off the farm crop one can imagine. He expressed love by what he could put on the table, so every meal was an experience. One of my earliest memories was my grandmother filling her trunk with enough food for a small country's army for a mere picnic on the beach - over fifteen dishes - she is still known in Salinas, California for the non-profit fundraiser meals she put on for hundreds of participants. My father spent his career in food manufacturing - working as an executive for Cook Industries, ConAgra, and other massive conglomerates. I spent my youth moving around the world - clams in the northwest, succulent blackened snapper in Florida, marbled steaks in Nebraska, morcilla in Puerto Rico, tapas in Spain, Bicol Express in the Philippines, and of course, CHILE in New Mexico (CHILE should always be all-caps).

Food is what has always bound my family together. Every year, we have a competition to create the best version of Polish sausage from my great grandmother's (father's side) recipe on Christmas Eve. The recipe of squash bread is sold in our shop goes back decades. My parents take on a German recipe (Eggs a la Goldenrod) has become a staple for four generations. Food to me is more than mere cuisine. It is the creation of memories. It is the tradition of sitting down with your family. It is the conversations that emerge over taste creatively done. Food should be an experience. It should inspire memories and create new ones. It took me becoming a husband and father of two incredible creative souls to realize my longstanding passion - putting something unique and memorable on the table every day - making every bite an event to be savored - to be remembered. My children and talented wife are my inspiration for creating the next great taste. I strive to create an experience, every time, for my family, and in extension, for all of our wonderful customers who have become our extended family.

I spent almost twenty years running high-technology companies, founding over five companies, three of which were venture funded. The most recent, which I ran for over seven years, hails from the biochemistry and bio-based fuel industry. When I finally made the transition to my real passion, food, I was surprised to realize the pertinence of all the chemistry I had been involved with to chocolate. Grace tells me I moved from a bio-fuel to a better bio-fuel - chocolate. In the chocolate world, I have benefited from my original experience in tech, the experience with Grace learning the practical aspects of chocolate making, and finally, my training with Valrhona and Stephan Treand, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Master of Works, Pastry).

Troy has trained with Stephane Treand, Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Master of Works, Pastry), in Los Angeles and at the Ecole du Grand Chocolat, Valrhona at their Brooklyn, NY school with the U.S. Pastry Team that took bronze at the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie in Lyon, France, 2015.